Education Technology and Science Fiction

An Update: No Updates

Wed, 26 Dec 2018 15:20:00 +0000

Beginning December 2018, I am taking a break from regular updates to Hack Education (in the form of the “Hack Education Weekly News” and the monthly “Business of Ed-Tech” venture funding analysis, specifically).

This project will also be dormant.

Maybe I’ll pick it up after I’ve finished writing Teaching Machines. Maybe I won’t.

New Year's Updates

Mon, 01 Jan 2018 10:10:00 +0000

I’ve made some changes to this site, most obviously updating the header image. Thanks to Bryan Mathers. (Why a pigeon?)

Those who look closely will also note that I have also changed the copyright information. No longer is there a Creative Commons license on Hack Education material. This really doesn’t change much, I promise. It just means you have to ask my permission before republishing my work. If you do wish to reprint my writing, please contact me directly.

Science Fiction and the 'Future' of Literacy

Thu, 27 Apr 2017 08:23:00 +0000

I haven’t kept this project updated with new novels or new films – it’s something that I’ll try to do more frequently. But I wanted to leave one thought here as a possible prompt for a future essay or keynote: what does science fiction have to say about literacy (not simply “school” or “education” per se)?

After Star Wars released a trailer for its upcoming moving, The Last Jedi, someone commented on Twitter that they thought it was the first time they’d seen print in the Star Wars (movie) universe. Indeed, in 2012, Ryan Britt had made a similar observation about the absence of reading and writing, arguing that “Most Citizens of the Star Wars Galaxy are Probably Totally Illiterate”:

Not once in any Star Wars movie does someone pick up a book or newspaper, magazine, literary journal, or chapbook handmade by an aspiring Jawa poet. If something is read by someone in Star Wars, it’s almost certainly off of a screen (and even then, maybe being translated by a droid), and it’s definitely not for entertainment purposes. As early as the 1990s-era expanded Star Wars books and comic books, we’re introduced to ancient Jedi “texts” called holocrons, which are basically talking holographic video recordings.

This raises all sorts of questions about the decline of literacy and the rise of authoritarianism. But it also makes me think about the rise of robots and the decline of literacy as well. In our imagination, of course. I'm sure none of this will actually come to pass...

Annotations, Blocked

Wed, 26 Apr 2017 08:49:00 +0000

I have added a script to my websites today that will block annotations – namely those from Genius and those from Hypothes.is. I have been meaning to do this for a while now, so it’s mostly a project that comes as I procrastinate doing something else rather than one that comes in response to any recent event.

I took comments of my websites in 2013 because I was sick of having to wade through threats of sexualized violence in order to host conversations on my ideas.

My blog. My rules. No comments.

I’ve made this position fairly well known – if you have something to say in response, go ahead and write your own blog post on your own damn site. So I find the idea that someone would use a service like Hypothes.is to annotate my work on my websites particularly frustrating. I don’t want comments – not in the margins and not at the foot of an article. Mostly, I don’t want to have to moderate them. I have neither the time nor the emotional bandwidth. And if I don’t want to moderate comments, that means I definitely do not want comments to appear here (or that appear to be here) that are outside my control or even my sight.

This isn’t simply about trolls and bigots threatening me (although yes, that is a huge part of it); it’s about extracting value from my work and shifting it to another (for-profit) company which then gets to control (and monetize) the conversation.

Blocking annotation tools does not stop you from annotating my work. I’m a fan of marginalia; I am. Blocking annotations stops you from writing in the margins here on this website.

A New Project

Sat, 26 Dec 2015 10:35:00 +0000

I'm starting a blog here to track on changes to the list of science fiction references.